1. Field of the Invention
The device and method of this invention reside in the field of scoring devices and more particularly relates to a tennis score keeping device that is visible to players and spectators alike and its method of use.
2. History of the Prior Art
Many of the prior art tennis score keeping devices are kept on players' wrists, similar to a wristwatch, or are mounted on a tennis racket. Some of these devices, being of a small size, are difficult to manipulate and read. Other scoring devices of the prior art are large, sign-like devices that are comprised of very complex structural displays that can be difficult to set the numerical components and are hard to quickly and easily read.
Visual scorekeepers are well known in the prior art such as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,874 to Posey which discloses a portable structure having plates bearing numbers suspended from notches on both sides of an elongated support member. The plates are manipulated by an assistant so that they appropriately display the score of the tennis match.
A co-inventor of the present invention has invented a device entitled Personal Tennis Score Keeper in U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,122 which teaches a hand held or racquet-mounted device having an array of squares in three columns bearing indicia indicating the number of games won by a first player in one column and the number of games won by an opposing player in the other column with slideably secured, adjustable markers to indicate the game scores.